Tag: Veil nebula

Cygnus

Cygnus is a prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere’s summer and autumn skies. Known as the “Swan,” it is easily recognizable due to its distinctive shape, which some people interpret as a flying bird with outstretched wings. In Greek mythology, Cygnus is often associated with the story of Zeus and the transformation of his lover, the beautiful mortal named Leda, into a swan.

The constellation Cygnus is home to several interesting celestial objects. One of the most famous is the Northern Cross, a prominent asterism formed by the brightest stars in the constellation. Deneb (upper right corner), is the brightest star in Cygnus.

In addition to stars, Cygnus contains various deep-sky objects. The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) are two emission nebulae located in the region of Deneb. These nebulae are often photographed due to their striking shapes, resembling the continent of North America and a pelican, respectively. Moreover, two supernova remnants can be found in this constellation. The Veil Nebula (upper left) knows probably every amateur astrophotographer, but to find out that there is another remnant called LNB 147 (lower left) was a surprise for me. This one deserves more attention, and if the weather allows, I will try to capture more light coming from there.

Cygnus is also traversed by the Milky Way, making it a rich region for observing star clusters, nebulae, and other deep-sky wonders. Overall, the constellation Cygnus holds a special place in both mythology and astronomy, offering stargazers a captivating celestial experience.

The pictures are a mosaic of 3×4 frames. In total, I captured 342 frames, each 5 minutes long (integration time 28 hours 30 minutes), which were taken during 10 nights in August and September. This makes it my biggest astrophotography project so far.

TelescopeAskar ACL 200 F4
Aperture50 mm
Focal length200 mm
MountRainbow Astro RST 135
AutoguidingZWO 178MM, QHY Mini Guide Scope
CameraZWO 6200MC @-10°C
FiltersAntlia ALP-T Dualband 5nm
Exposure342x300s, Gain 100, bin 1×1,
Date2023-09-12
2023-09-15
2023-09-05
2023-09-06
2023-08-23
2023-08-24
2023-08-16
2023-08-21
2023-08-22
2023-08-11
2023-08-22
2023-08-23

Cygnus

I went to Crete without a detailed plan on which deep space objects to capture. The primary target was Rho Ophiuchi, which I captured really well. Then I started to think about the next objects. Obviously, if you are in a dark place, you can point your camera nearly anywhere. However, there are some regions full of stars and deep space objects. For example constellation Cygnus, which is sometimes called the Northern Cross. It is located visually on the plane of the Milky Way galactic disk, therefore there are many deep space objects.

Let’s have a look at a wide-field picture captured by a 24 mm lens attached to Canon EOS 6Da:

Let’s zoom a bit by changing the lens to a 50 mm focal length. Here the constellation is perfectly centered:

Let’s zoom further to the central star Sadr by change of the lens to 180 mm focal length:

Let’s keep the focal length 180 mm and let’s have a look at the left star Deneb and very famous North America nebula:

Again, let’s keep the focal length 180 mm and change to perspective to the bottom (eastern) star Aljanah, where the beautiful supernova remnant the Veil nebula is located:

In total, the camera collected 15.5 hours of light and I am happy with the result.


NGC6992 Veil nebula

The most photographed deep-space object by me is the Veil nebula. I simply love this supernova remnant. The previous mosaic picture revealed that the eastern part is slightly brighter, therefore I pointed my telescope with a longer focal length and made this bi-color picture.

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:1000 mm
Mount:Gemini GF53f
Autoguiding:Orion Mini, TS 50/160 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:GPU
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII
Exposure:21xHa, 19xOIII 300 s bin 1×1
Date:2016-10-31

NGC6960 NGC6992 Veil nebula mosaic

Here is another picture of my favorite Veil nebula. The first attempt here with a long focal length (1000 mm), the second attempt here with a shorter focal length (730 mm), and finally third here with the shortest focal length I have (430 mm). Still, I haven’t captured everything of the nebula last year and this year I focused my smallest telescope on the western part of the Veil nebula and created a mosaic.

The picture, as well as the previous ones, are bi-color images. I captured hydrogen alpha (Ha) and oxygen III (OIII) narrow band images and inserted the Ha image into the red channel and OIII into the green and blue channels.

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
Mount:Gemini G53f
Autoguiding:ZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @ -30C
Corrector:ASA 2″ reducer 0.73
Filters:Baader Ha 7 nm, OIII 8.5 nm SII 8nm
Exposure:30x Ha, 30x OIII, 600 s, bin 1×1
Date:2016-09-01

NGC6960 Veil nebula

For the third time I am trying to capture the whole Veil nebula, but again, there is a part missing. This time I used the smallest telescope, I have at home – newton 150/600, reduced to focal length 438 mm, by ASA 0.73 reducer. This picture contains the first picture in the left top corner and the second picture in the right bottom corner. Anyway, there is still something missing, therefore next time I have to reduce the focal length even more or do a mosaic.

Telescope:Newton 150/600 mm
Aperture:150 mm
Focal length:438 mm
MountGemini G53f
AutoguidingZWO 174MM, TS 60/240 mm
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @-30C
Corrector:ASA 2″ reducer 0.73
Filters:Baader Ha 7 nm, OIII 8.5 nm SII 8nm
Exposure:9xHa, 9xOIII, 600 s, bin 1×1
Date:2015-11-09

NGC6960 Veil nebula

The previous picture of the Veil nebula was done by using a focal length of 1000 mm. Since this nebula is huge, I wanted to capture also the other parts. This time I reduced the focal length to 730 mm, by ASA corrector/reducer.

Telescope:Newton 254/1000 mm
Aperture:254 mm
Focal length:730 mm
MountSkywatcher EQ-6
AutoguidingOrion Mini Autoguider
Camera:Moravian instruments G2 8300M @ -30C
Corrector:ASA 2″ corrector/reducer
Filters:Baader Ha, OIII
Exposure:15x Ha, 15x OIII, 600 s, bin 1×1

NGC6960 Veil nebula

Veil nebula is a supernova remnant – hot and ionized gas and dust floating in the universe, as a remainder of a mighty star, which once shined (roughly before 5 – 8 thousand of years), locate in constellation Cygnus (swan). This nebula is relatively close to Earth – only 1470 light years, therefore the visual angle is huge – approximately 3 degrees, which is six times the diameter of the Moon.

The picture is composed by bi-color technique. Two narrow band pictures were taken (Ha and OIII). H alpha was used for red channel and OIII for green and blue. Since I used quite long focal length (1000 mm) the whole DSO didn’t fit in the field of view of the camera. Next time I will try to use shorter one.

NGC6960_Veil_2015-08-23-30C-600s-7HaOIII-FL1000